Why are shakespeares plays so timeless with universal thems and issues so relevant to us today?

Friar Tuck

The subjects he based his plays on are generally life issues so, although I personally do not quite agree with his plays being timeless, people can understand the plots if not always the dialogue. If the Bard had based a play on a trogolodyte named Ug, his favourite wooden club and Miss Ug Ug, the girl in the cave down the road and his endless search for a T Rex burger for lunch, it would always be a play about prehistoric man and nothing else. Oct 18 02, 8:07 AM

Guru???

Shakespeares plays are all set in definite times in history so cannot be regarded as timeless. For instance Romeo and Juliet has been adapted and modernised numerous times especially the classic West Side Story. Oct 18 02, 8:13 AM

Gnomon

Not all Shakespeare's plays are timeless. The comedies have not aged as well as the tragedies. People's ideas of what was funny have changed considerably since Shaekspearian times - his practical jokes were extremely cruel, often involving the complete ruin of a person's life. And the attitudes in 'The Taming of the Shrew' are totally obnoxious and not really acceptable to today's society. Oct 18 02, 11:24 AM

Fosse4

If you'd had to study his plays for examinations you would know that they are not just plays but are Shakespeares way of answering the meaning of Life the Universe and everything!. I think that the plays are equivalent to Monty Python or M*A*S*H , They were entertainment for the viewers of that day. Oct 18 02, 8:30 PM